Category: things I’m loving

In our office, we have this one weird wall that’s been missing something. We try to keep the space creative and fun, which we hope will reflect in the work we do.

As Adam does most of his writing there, he has one wall full of whiteboards, bulletin boards with notes and quotes pinned, and posters from some of his favorite bands.

The wall opposite that has served as an often-rotating canvas, full of some of my photos from abroad and random assortment of other things we liked. Even after almost three years of living here, we never really put that much effort into that wall, though I’ve been wanting to do a funky and fun gallery wall for almost as long.

When Jennifer, with Modern Map Art, reached out to me about her San Diego art print, I was so excited! Finally, that wall would have a focal point and I could begin making something fun out of it.

When I visited the website, I loved how many options there were.

In addition, each of these beautiful maps is available in five different sizes: 8×10, 12×18, 16×20, 18×24 and 24×36. I talked with Adam and we decided to go with the blue and yellow one in 16×20. I wanted to make sure it was large enough to be a focal point on that wall, and I loved how bright and fun the colors were.

A little over a week after ordering, the map had arrived! It came in a large hard cardboard tube (which Maeby later stole because she thought it was a fun toy), and when I unrolled it, I was in love.

The bright blues and yellows did not disappoint and that night I got to work on our wall. I initially planned to order a frame (and still will in the coming weeks), but I was so excited to get this map up that for now, I have it hung with some white binder clips and push pins. It took me awhile to figure out what to put up there with it, but since I wanted the wall to be a culmination of things Adam and I love, I knew it would be a nice collection of photos, musical pieces, and other miscellaneous items.

On the wall, we have:

Two canvas prints – One Adam’s friend did a loooooong time ago and one I made when I first moved here

Three framed photos – One of me and my teammates from college, one of two of our best friends, and one of Adam and his friends from when he first moved out here

A large print from my time abroad

A Beatles record – Adam’s favorite band of all time

A signed poster of another band Adam liked back in the day

My old license plate from the car I drove across country a little over three years ago (letters blocked out)

There are still quite a bit of blank spaces and the wall is pretty big, so we plan to add to it as we can. For now, I love that this wall is a representation of us, regardless of the mixed media types, and that it fully captures the creative and colorful vibe we’ve been trying to convey in our office for a long time.

Most of all, I love that this map is a fun and beautiful cartographic representation of San Diego. Adam and I plan to move back to New England in the coming years. Life in San Diego is wonderful but New England, full of its cold weather and sarcasm, will always be home. This print will always be representative of our beginnings and my time in America’s Finest City, and we can take it with us wherever we go.

Disclosure: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog. All opinions are my own.

On Saturday, my friend and I drove to Coronado for a few hours on the beach. I love, love, love how easy it is to get to the beach here. It took us 15 minutes from her neighborhood, and that is one of the farther beaches! Having grown up in Connecticut, the closest beach was always an hour away, and they didn’t look anything like the beaches here.

This dark chocolate bar with coconut caramel from Trader Joe’s:

Naturally I found it at the checkout line and had no self control. Zero regrets.

Being able to run again:

After taking a few weeks off from knee pain related to IT band issues, I’m happy to say I’ve been able to run! My distance has varied over the past couple of weeks, from 3-6 miles, and this past weekend, I got in a run at my favorite running spot (which I will talk about later this week) and also at a trail in the canyons near my house.

On our way to the beach, my friend wanted to stop here, and it was the first time I’ve ever been to this place. The sandwich was huge and quite delicious, but it was also my first time having an acai bowl and I was not disappointed. At all. 10/10 would eat again and again everyday ever.

And last, but definitely not least…

Maeby in a cone:

It’s just really damn adorable. She had some surgery done a week-and-a-half ago (she had a cyst removed from her leg), and had to wear this cone when we weren’t home and when we went to bed. Lucky for her, the rest of the time she got to wear a skirt/pants we made for her. But what’s really lucky is she got her stitches out yesterday and spent an hour at the dog park immediately after, so life is good again.